KDP to visit Kurdish parties for unified agenda ahead of Baghdad talks
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has said that a delegation will visit four Kurdish parties in Sulaimani who disputed the results of the May parliamentary elections in a renewed attempt to push for a united Kurdish agenda for the participation of Kurds in the new government in Baghdad.
Head of KDP's political leadership council Fazi Mirani told Rudaw that the visit and new round of talks will commence after the Eid holidays.
“I will visit KIU brothers after eid, and then other parties,” Secretary of KDP Politburo Fazil Mirani told Rudaw.
The KIU is the Kurdistan Islamic Union.
Mirani said that polarization does not help Kurdish politics.
“If there is a better alternative to polarization, we will be happy to listen to it. I think we should meet, not polarize,” he added.
The KDP as the main winner of the May 12 elections with 25 seats and its closest political partner the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have been holding talks with Iraqi parties on a mechanism for a new government.
Kurdish parties have for their part rejected any talks with the KDP and PUK and accuse them of serious vote rigging. They continue to reject the results of a manual recount of the votes.
The Change Movement (Gorran), Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ), Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), and Islamic Group (Komal) have held their own talks in Sulaimani on whether to boycott Iraqi politics or particpate in forming a new government in Baghdad.
The KDP says that the after-Eid visits to those parties is an initiative to thaw the ice and hopefully bring them into a wider Kurdish coalition for negotiations with Baghdad.
Dr. Mohammed Hawdiani, KIU leadership member believes that the KDP and PUK are pursuing a completely different agenda, saying, "“Opposition parties will have their own agenda for Baghdad. The agenda prepared by the KDP and PUK reflect their own positions,”